Friday, December 31, 2010

Avishay Braverman [is] a big, burly man with a voluble and forceful manner, he is a member of the minority Labor Party within the generally right-wing coalition government of Benjamin Netanyahu. A former president of Ben-Gurion University, he unashamedly wants to replace Ehud Barak as leader of the Labor Party.

...Braverman's offer to the Palestinians would be very much like those of former prime ministers Ehud Olmert and Barak. Braverman says: "We need 5 per cent of the West Bank for the settlement blocks in exchange for unpopulated areas of the Negev, and we need strong security measures and help from the US."

The Palestinian president said a new attempt by the Palestinians to get the United Nations to condemn Israeli settlements was specifically designed to win U.S. support...the Palestinians have drafted a proposal and are lobbying for a Security Council resolution that would declare West Bank settlements illegal and an "obstacle to peace."

...President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian draft used language similar to that used by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has criticized settlements.

"We drafted it using the same words that Secretary Clinton is using and so we don't see why the U.S. would veto it," Abbas said.

...As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949...

And what did Elliot Abrams, who help write that letter and was handled Middle East affairs at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2009, clarify?

The U.S. and Israel reached a clear understanding about natural growth * Despite fervent denials by Obama administration officials, there were indeed agreements between Israel and the United States regarding the growth of Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

...We asked Mr. Sharon about freezing the West Bank settlements. I recall him asking, by way of reply, what did that mean for the settlers? They live there, he said, they serve in elite army units, and they marry. Should he tell them to have no more children, or move?

We discussed some approaches: Could he agree there would be no additional settlements? New construction only inside settlements, without expanding them physically? Could he agree there would be no additional land taken for settlements?

As we talked several principles emerged. The father of the settlements now agreed that limits must be placed on the settlements;...

...On the major settlement blocs, Mr. Bush said, "In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949." Several previous administrations had declared all Israeli settlements beyond the "1967 borders" to be illegal. Here Mr. Bush dropped such language, referring to the 1967 borders -- correctly -- as merely the lines where the fighting stopped in 1949, and saying that in any realistic peace agreement Israel would be able to negotiate keeping those major settlements.

On settlements we also agreed on principles that would permit some continuing growth. Mr. Sharon stated these clearly in a major policy speech in December 2003: "Israel will meet all its obligations with regard to construction in the settlements. There will be no construction beyond the existing construction line, no expropriation of land for construction, no special economic incentives and no construction of new settlements."

Ariel Sharon did not invent those four principles. They emerged from discussions with American officials and were discussed by Messrs. Sharon and Bush at their Aqaba meeting in June 2003.

They were not secret, either. Four days after the president's letter, Mr. Sharon's Chief of Staff Dov Weissglas wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that "I wish to reconfirm the following understanding, which had been reached between us: 1. Restrictions on settlement growth: within the agreed principles of settlement activities, an effort will be made in the next few days to have a better definition of the construction line of settlements in Judea & Samaria."

Stories in the press also made it clear that there were indeed "agreed principles." On Aug. 21, 2004 the New York Times reported that "the Bush administration . . . now supports construction of new apartments in areas already built up in some settlements, as long as the expansion does not extend outward."

In recent weeks, American officials have denied that any agreement on settlements existed. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated on June 17 that "in looking at the history of the Bush administration, there were no informal or oral enforceable agreements. That has been verified by the official record of the administration and by the personnel in the positions of responsibility."

These statements are incorrect. Not only were there agreements, but the prime minister of Israel relied on them in undertaking a wrenching political reorientation -- the dissolution of his government, the removal of every single Israeli citizen, settlement and military position in Gaza, and the removal of four small settlements in the West Bank. This was the first time Israel had ever removed settlements outside the context of a peace treaty, and it was a major step.

...For reasons that remain unclear, the Obama administration has decided to abandon the understandings about settlements reached by the previous administration with the Israeli government. We may be abandoning the deal now, but we cannot rewrite history and make believe it did not exist.

The person who uttered that prognostication is Prof. Arnon Soffer. He's to Geula Cohen's right.

If you go here, htis Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel site, in Hebrew, you'lll find this information:

there are 7.7 million persons residing in Israel.

of them, 5.8 million are Jews (75.4%)
1.57 million are Arabs (20.4%)
.320 million are other (4.2%)

How's that for academic professional ability?

Now, take into consideration that in Judea and Samaria live 1.6 million Arabs (the 'official figure' of 2.5 million is off as it includes a double-count of .200 million residing in jerusalem and .400 million who actually reside abroad (and do you know how many Israelis live abroad?), that leaves a Jewish majority between the River and the Sea of 66%.

...Demographobia has shaped Israel's public debate on the future of Judea and Samaria, in spite of the 50% rise in the annual number of Jewish births since 1995, compared with the stabilization of the annual number of Arab births since then...Demgoraphobia has corrupted movers and shakers in defiance of a September 2006 study by The World Bank, which documented a 32% "inflation" in the number of PCBS births. Demographobia has clouded the Israeli state-of-mind notwithstanding the demographic tailwind which bolsters the current 66% Jewish majority in the combined area of Judea, Samaria and pre-1967 Israel...There is a demographic problem, but there is no demographic machete at the throat of the Jewish State.

Dr. David Passig, a futurist and the Head of the Graduate Program of Communication Technologies at Bar Ilan University, analyzes [in Hebrew] [and here, too, in Hebrew] the collapse of Middle East and global demographic projections and the blossoming of Jewish demography in Israel. According to Passig, Muslim fertility is experiencing the fastest decline in the world, while Israel's Jewish fertility rate is surging. In 2010, Israeli Arab fertility rate declined to its lowest level, as a result of unprecedented modernization process. "Among Palestinians, natural birth and fertility rates are similar to those in Jordan (2.8 births per woman)."

Is demographic pessimism justified in 2011 while Herzl and Ben Gurion were solidly optimistic in 1900 and in 1947 when Jews were a minority of 8% and 33% respectively in their Homeland?!

Is it responsible to subordinate Jewish vision and national security to tenuous demographic problems in 2011, while Ben Gurion and his successors – until 1992 – proactively upgraded demography in order to advance vision and national security?!

Well, in a fascinating study that was publicized last month in the weekly B'Sheva, Haggai Segal claims that as opposed to the prophecies of demographic doom - "a fundamental and free-of-defeatism analysis proves that the Arabs are still not the majority between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, nor will they be in the next few years."

Segal partly bases himself on studies conducted by Yaakov Feitelson (Netanyahu's former demographic adviser), Dr. Yitzhak Ravid and Dr. David Passig of Bar-Ilan University, who claims that the majority of pessimistic predictions rely on outdated methodology, and that in fact time is working in Israel's favor. From what he says, the time should get a little encouragement in the form of voluntary transfer, which he claims is in any case happening, but is thwarted by the Shin Bet and the Jordanians.

...As an American-Israeli, I find it curious that America's cities erupted simultaneously with the birth of West Bank settlements. Martin Luther King's assassination at the beginning of April 1968 triggered these riots. At the same time, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, student of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, spiritual father of West Bank settlements (whom I wrote about here) moved into the West Bank Palestinian city of Hebron to celebrate Passover. For the past 42 years, Hebron has been one of the focal points of state-sponsored settler violence against Palestinians and emblematic of Israel's program for the West Bank including constant violence, intimidation, vastly unequal control of resources, curfews, occasional extra-judicial killings and impunity for Jewish thugs. Rabbi and Mrs. Levinger set the tone for Hebron and for the entire movement.

It's baffling to me how liberal American including the Jews who supported desegregation and equal rights for all American continue to support these policies against Israel's non-Jews...

Weird.

As Levinger only arrived in Hebron for the Seder which fell on April 13th, and MLK was assassinated on April 6, his chronology is wrong and his "coincidence" falls. But why should a reform Jew need to know the Hebrew calendar?

But actually, the enterprise to reestablish a Jewish presence in its national homeland began in late August 1967 with a grouip of socialist Zionists from Kibbutz Me'uchad who settled down in Merom HaGolan. The religious Jews the Rabbi/Cantor doesn't like arrived in Kfar Eztion in mid-September 1967, but since Kfar Etzion was established in the 1920s - and had been destroyed and its Jewish population expelled, those that survived the slaughter of the residents by Arabs - does that count?

Now, as for liberal Jews, they that do support are doing so because they know its correct and right and has nothing to do with American politics. Besides, that all his fomenting lacks perspective and proportion and a bit of the turth.

...they must make sure that their strategy will allow a future Israeli government that will replace Netanyahu’s current extreme-right coalition to engage with the Palestinian peace plan.

They must state explicitly that the establishment of Palestine along the 1967 borders would end the conflict. Most importantly: while they would want moral recognition of their tragedy of 1948 and some form of restitution to the refugees of 1948, they should accept something along the peace plan of Yuval Rabin, which states that the right of return will not be implemented except in a few symbolic instances.

Quite unfortunately, there are indications that the Palestinians may continue their unfortunate tendency never to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. In a recent article in the Guardian, Saeb Erekat wrote that the Palestinian right of return is a central issue, and went on to say that, “Israel's recognition of Palestinian refugee rights and its agreement to provide reparation and meaningful refugee choice in the exercise of these rights will not change the reality in the Middle East overnight, nor will it lead to an existential crisis for Israel.”

Akiva Eldar and I have written a rejoinder in which we express our disappointment at Erekat’s formulation...The option of millions of Palestinians settling in Israel would mean no less than the end of the Homeland of the Jews.

It needs to be clear that even liberals like Akiva Eldar and me, who have been for a Palestinian state since long before the PLO and Israel ever talked to each other, have red lines that we will not cross...

Through the demand to actually implement the Palestinian right of return, as Erekat seems to be implying, Palestinians condemn themselves, Israel and the whole region to further decades of violence, trauma and enormous suffering. Their theory that Jews in Israel will ultimately renounce the idea of a Jewish homeland is wrong...there are but two choices: the two-state solution, or descent of the region into chaos that will make earlier rounds of bloodletting look tame.

...If they now try to capitalize on their international advantage to push for the implementation of the right of return, they will repeat their historical mistake of 1947, and once again reject the partition of the area west of the Jordan River...

In this article, the relationship between dispositional personality traits (the Big Five) and the consumption of political information is examined. A detailed hypotheses is presented about the characteristics of the political environment that are likely to affect the appeal of politics and political information in general for individuals with different personalities as well as hypotheses about how personality affects the attractiveness of particular sources of political information.

It was found that the Big Five traits are significant predictors of political interest and knowledge as well as consumption of different types of political media. Openness (the degree to which a person needs intellectual stimulation and variety) and Emotional Stability (characterized by low levels of anxiety) are associated with a broad range of engagement with political information and political knowledge. The other three Big Five traits, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Extraversion, are associated only with consumption of specific types of political information.

"...our settlements in Judea, Samaria, the Gaza District and the Golan Heights. They are legal and legitimate and they are an integral part of our national security. None of them will ever be removed."

Poll: Palestinians Oppose Compromise on Core Issues (Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research)A joint survey conducted by the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah found that a majority of Palestinians oppose compromise on key core issues.57% of Palestinians oppose a settlement in which Palestinian refugees would be given choices for permanent residency including inside a Palestinian state.63% of the Palestinian public oppose a compromise in which east Jerusalem would become the capital of the Palestinian state with Arab neighborhoods coming under Palestinian sovereignty and Jewish neighborhoods coming under Israeli sovereignty.74% of Palestinians oppose the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state.61% of the Palestinian public oppose a compromise regarding security arrangements whereby Israel would have the right to use Palestinian airspace and would maintain two early warning stations in the West Bank for 15 years.

In the fourth quarter of 2010:
While demand for holding local elections increases, and while pessimism regarding the chances for reconciliation increases, and while criticism of the PA for suppression of freedoms increases, credibility of the authorities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip diminishes, support for a permanent settlement along the lines of the Clinton Parameters and the Geneva Initiative decreases, and two thirds oppose return to negotiations with Israel before it freezes settlement construction despite the fact that a majority believes Israel would be the first to benefit from no negotiations.

16-18 December 2010
These are the results of the latest poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between 16-18 December 2010. Before the conduct of the poll, authorities in the West Bank arrested a Hamas cell and accused it of plotting to assassinate the governor of Nablus and Hamas sentenced three Fateh members to death after convicting them of killing a Gazan mosque preacher. A meeting in Damascus between Fateh and Hamas representatives failed to reach an agreement on reconciliation. On the peace process front, the US announced that it has ceased to press Israel on the need to freeze settlement construction and urged Palestinians and Israelis to enter into indirect negotiations it promised to sponsor. This poll covers issues related to domestic conditions: the performance of the governments of Salam Fayyad and Ismail Haniyeh, the internal balance of power between Fateh and Hamas, the future of reconciliation and reunification, and the views of the public on the most vital Palestinian goals and the most serious problems confronting Palestinians today. The poll also covers issues related to the peace process and public attitude toward a permanent settlement as well as Palestinian perception of the views of the Israeli Jewish majority of various calls and proposed legislation that seeks to discriminate against Arabs. Total size of the sample is 1270 adults interviewed face to face in 127 randomly selected locations. Margin of error is 3%. For further details, contact PSR director, Dr. Khalil Shikaki, or Walid Ladadweh at tel 02-296 4933 or email pcpsr@pcpsr.org.

Findings show that two thirds of the public oppose return to US-sponsored indirect negotiations with Israel. But they also show that almost 60% believe that Israel would be the one to benefit from such a step while only 13% believe that Palestinians would benefit from not returning to negotiations. Findings also show that the public is still uncertain about the best alternative to negotiations: two groups support almost equally two options, going to the US Security Council and waging violent confrontations. A third group prefers a non violent resistance and a fourth prefers to dissolve the PA.

· 40% support and 58% oppose a permanent settlement based on the Clinton Parameters and the Geneva Initiative; highest level of support (58%) goes to the item on ending the conflict and lowest (24%) to the item on state demilitarization, a state without an army.

· 49% support and 49% oppose recognition of Israel as the state for the Jewish people in return for a recognition of Palestine as the state for the Palestinian people after all issues of the conflict are resolved and a Palestinian state is established

· 75% are worried and 25% are not worried that they or members of their families will be hurt at the hands of Israelis in their daily life or that their land will be confiscated or homes demolished

· 71% believe that the chances for establishing a Palestinian state in the next five years are slim or non existent and 27% believe the chances are medium or high

· 67% oppose and 30% support return to negotiations without a settlement freeze but 59% believe that Israel would benefit more from such a step

· In the absence of negotiations, 31% prefer to go the US Security Council, 29% prefer return to armed confrontations, 16% prefer non violent confrontations, and 16% prefer to dissolve the PA

Findings show a majority support (54%) for the Arab Peace Initiative while 42% oppose it. But a majority of 58% opposes, and 40% support, a package of a permanent status agreement based on the Clinton Parameters and the Geneva Initiative. Support for this package stood at 38% in August 2009 and 49% in June 2010. The Clinton parameters for a Palestinian-Israeli permanent settlement were presented by President Clinton at a meeting with Israeli and Palestinian officials almost ten years ago, on December 23, 2000, following the collapse of the July 2000 Camp David summit. The Geneva Initiative, along similar lines, was made public around the end of 2003. These parameters address the most fundamental issues which underlie the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: (1) final borders and territorial exchange; (2) refugees; (3) Jerusalem; (4) a demilitarized Palestinian state; (5) security arrangements; and (6) end of conflict. We have been addressing these issues periodically since December 2003, and in the current poll we revisited these crucial issues following the diplomatic activity of the US with regard to the conflict and the US efforts to revive indirect negotiations.

Findings, as the summary table below shows, indicate that the public rejects all the items in the package with the exception of the one dealing with the end of conflict. The following is a summary of the items and the attitudes to each:

(1) Final Borders and Territorial Exchange: 49% support or strongly support and 50% oppose or strongly oppose an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with the exception of some settlement areas in less than 3% of the West Bank that would be swapped with an equal amount of territory from Israel in accordance with a map that was presented to the Palestinian respondents. The map was identical to that presented to respondents in June 2010, when support for this compromise, with its map, stood at 60% and opposition at 38%.

(2) Refugees: 41% support and 57% oppose a refugee settlement in which both sides agree that the solution will be based on UN resolutions 194 and 242. The refugees would be given five choices for permanent residency. These are: the Palestinian state and the Israeli areas transferred to the Palestinian state in the territorial exchange mentioned above; no restrictions would be imposed on refugee return to these two areas. Residency in the other three areas (in host countries, third countries, and Israel) would be subject to the decision of these states. As a base for its decision Israel will consider the average number of refugees admitted to third countries like Australia, Canada, Europe, and others. All refugees would be entitled to compensation for their “refugeehood” and loss of property. In June 2010, 48% agreed with an identical compromise while 49% opposed it.

(3) Jerusalem: 36% support and 63% oppose a Jerusalem compromise in which East Jerusalem would become the capital of the Palestinian state with Arab neighborhoods coming under Palestinian sovereignty and Jewish neighborhoods coming under Israeli sovereignty. The Old City (including al Haram al Sharif) would come under Palestinian sovereignty with the exception of the Jewish Quarter and the Wailing Wall that would come under Israeli sovereignty. In June 2010, an identical compromise obtained 37% support and 62% opposition.

(4) Demilitarized Palestinian State: 24% support and 74% oppose the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that would have no army, but would have a strong security force and would have a multinational force deployed in it to ensure its security and safety. Israel and Palestine would be committed to end all forms of violence directed against each other. A similar compromise received in June 2010, 28% support, and opposition reached 70%. This item receives the lowest level of support by Palestinians. Unlike the refugees and Jerusalem components, this issue has not received due attention in public discourse, as it should, since it may become a major stumbling block in the efforts to reach a settlement.

(5) Security Arrangements: 38% support and 61% oppose a compromise whereby the Palestinian state would have sovereignty over its land, water, and airspace, but Israel would have the right to use the Palestinian airspace for training purposes, and would maintain two early warning stations in the West Bank for 15 years. A multinational force would remain in the Palestinian state and in its border crossings for an indefinite period of time. The task of the multinational force would be to monitor the implementation of the agreement, and to monitor territorial borders and coast of the Palestinian state including the presence at its international crossings. In June 2010, 41% of the Palestinians supported this parameter while 57% opposed it.

(6) End of Conflict: 58% support and 41% oppose a compromise on ending the conflict that would state that when the permanent status agreement is fully implemented, it will mean the end of the conflict and no further claims will be made by either side. The parties will recognize Palestine and Israel as the homelands of their respective peoples. The comparable figures in June 2010 were 63% support and 35% opposition.

Support for the package is higher in the Gaza Strip, standing at 49%, than in the West Bank, standing at 35%.

Findings show that the Palestinians are divided into two equal halves in support and opposition to the proposal that calls for mutual recognition of national identity with Palestinians recognizing Israel as the state for the Jewish people and Israelis recognizing Palestine as the state for the Palestinian people after all issues of the conflict have been settled and after a Palestinian state has been established. These figures are similar to those obtained in our last poll, three months ago.

Findings also show that an overwhelming majority (75%) is worried that they or members of their families would be hurt by Israelis in their daily life or that their land would be confiscated or homes demolished. Percentage of worry is slightly higher in the Gaza Strip (77%) compared to the West Bank (75%). Findings also show an overwhelming majority pessimistic about the chances for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel in the next five years: 71% believe chances to be slim or non existent and 27% believe them to be medium or high.

Findings also indicate that two thirds of the public oppose entering into US-sponsored indirect negotiations and 30% support it. Despite the clear opposition, a majority of 59% believes that Israel would be the one to benefit from such step in which Palestinians boycott negotiations. Only 13% believe Palestinians would be one to benefit and 16% believe the two sides will not benefit and 9% believe the two sides will benefit from such a step.

Finally, findings indicate that the public is still uncertain about the preferred alternative to negotiations: two alternatives are supported almost equally, going to the UN Security Council receives 31% support and waging armed confrontations against Israel receives 29% support. Two other alternatives receive lesser but equal support: waging a non violent confrontation and dissolving the PA, with each receiving 16%. While going to the UN Security Council receives similar support from residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (32% and 30% respectively), regional differences exist regarding other alternatives. Support for waging armed confrontations stands at 39% among Gazans but only 24% among West Bankers. Support for non violent confrontations stands at 18% among West Bankers but only 13% among Gazans. Support for dissolving the PA receives similar support in the two areas: 15% in the Gaza Strip and 17% in the West Bank.

Neither the 1993 "Oslo I" (the Declaration of Principles) nor the 1995 Oslo II (Interim Agreement) stipulate that the construction of settlements, neighborhoods, houses, roads or other building projects cease - pending a peacefully negotiated final settlement between the parties...Calls for a freeze on Jewish construction in the Territories - while Arab construction continues unfettered, are unfair - all the more so, in light of the fact that Jews were forcibly expelled from these Territories in 1948.

Legalities aside, before 1967 there were no Jewish settlements in the West Bank and for the first ten years of so-called "occupation" there were almost no Jewish settlers in the West Bank. And still there was no peace with the Palestinian Arabs. The notion that Jewish communities pose an obstacle to peace is a red herring...

Because the Arabs were clearly the aggressors, nowhere in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 or 338 - the cornerstones of a peace settlement - is Israel branded as an invader or occupier of the Territories and there is no call for Israel to withdraw from all the Territories...
Professor, Judge Schwebel, a former president of the International Court of Justice, wrote in What Weight to Conquest:

"Where the prior holder of territory [Jordan] had seized that territory unlawfully; the state which subsequently takes that territory in the lawful exercise of self-defense [Israel] has against that prior holder [a] better title.

"As between Israel, acting defensively in 1948 and 1967, on the one hand, and her Arab neighbors, acting aggressively, in 1948 and 1967, on the other, Israel has the better title in the territory of what was Palestine, including the whole of Jerusalem."

One of the more recent lines of attack on Israel, I have noticed, is the use of the money angle, which has always been an antisemitic staple - Jews/money.

For example, this comment is over at The Lede blog of the NYTimes. The post notes the arrest and sentencing of an anarchist in Israel, a pro-Pal. activist. I won't go into the merits of the specific case - which could be argued.

But all this comment leaver does is write "your American Tax dollars at work":

How, exactly, are American tax dollars "at work" here? Do they, as with many USAID -funded projects in the Palestinian Authority, directly influence what happens? Exactly how much of American tax dollars end up in Israel or, as the case is, are they expended in American as the terms of the grants in many cases specify that Israel is obligated to use American firms in projects? Could it be that the anarchist is actually guilty?

I think you will find many of these type of "financial" messages left all over the web and I would presume they are part of a plan.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Dozens of settlers took over 60 dunums of Palestinian land in the Nablus district on Tuesday, Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Doughlas said.

Doughlas, who holds the settlements file for the northern West Bank, said settlers erected fences around the land and began digging. The land belongs to Jalud village, which is surrounded by four illegal settlements.

Jaloud is east and slightly north of Shiloh. So:-

[Legend: Shiloh is in the diamond; Shvut Rachel is in the triangle; Achiyah is the square; Jaloud is in the ellipse; Qaryut is in the rectangle]

So, I have to go out and look but its dark. So please wait. It could get complicated as a few days ago this was reported:-

December 22 (QNA) – Jewish settlers Wednesday seized 30 donums of land near the village of Jaloud in Nablus area, owned by Palestinians. Ghassan Daghlas, who is in charge of jewish settelment in the northern westrn bank said the settlers seized control of the land and started to plough it.

Yesha Council Chairman Dany Dayan noon dispatched an urgent letter to Attorney General, Attorney Yehuda Weinstein, asking him to investigate the legality of contracts and the actions of contract suppliers of Israeli companies taking part in building the Palestinian city Rawabi after this morning it was revealed that under those under contract are committed to boycotting products and resources produced in Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Judea and Samaria are defined in the contract as occupied territory. "

According to reports this morning more than twenty Israeli companies signed a contractual document which they undertake: "Regardless of any other provision of this Agreement or any other place, the seller can not use and/or hire a product and/or services and/or resources are produced and/or originating in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria in order to effect some purpose of this Agreement or in connection with that ... These areas include, but are not limited to, the occupied East Jerusalem, the 'occupied West Bank', Gaza Strip and the occupied Golan Heights, occupied or any part thereof, and any area or another area to apply the above definition. "

In the appeal to the Attorney General, Dayan writes that in the establishment of Rawabi project many Israeli companies are participating in the construction, infrastructure, equipment, building materials, consulting and the attached documents include contract clauses that it commits Israeli companies thgat want to take part in the project with the developer, Bayti Real Estate Company based in El Birah. These sections ban the companies to commit resources to products originating in what is called a "Israeli settlements" with the details above.

Yesha Council Chairman further writes to Weinstein: "signatures of Israeli companies on such contract have a public aspect to me which very serious. This despicable behavior by Israeli companies ready to call parts of their country and their capital as "occupied" and confiscate other Israeli companies to produce financial gain from the other party. It's shameful surrender to the Arab boycott Israeli companies join him in practice."

Dayan added: "But there are also doubts the legality of signatures of Israeli companies such section, discriminatory Israeli workers and companies due to their residence or place of business management. It is severe enough that the PA has done so for many months and Israel is silent. But it is unbearable that Israeli companies themselves would do so and that the Israeli legal system let it be done."

SS Altalena may finally reach shoreIsrael may extract remnants of SS Altalena, which was sunk in 1948 by IDF while carrying Jewish passengers, display them at museum; cost of project estimated to reach millions

The legendary SS Altalena might soon reach shore: An initiative is being discussed by the Knesset to salvage and display the remnants of the ship, which was sunk by the IDF in 1948 while carrying Jewish passengers, Yedioth Ahronoth revealed Wednesday.

Heading the initiative is Chairman of the House Committee Yariv Levin, whose great uncle was the SS Altalena's military commander, Elyahu Lankin. A few months ago Levin presented the issue to senior officials at the Prime Minister's Office, who asked him to come up with a detailed plan and to coordinate it with the Navy.

Levin plans to submit the plan for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's approval in the coming days. According to senior Likud officials, Netanyahu is likely to sign off on the initiative. It is unclear how the project, which is estimated to cost millions of dollars, will be funded.

"We must feel a personal commitment to the founding generation in general and for the Altalena specifically, and bring the ship to shore," Levin said. "We are considering different possibilities , but the idea is that if the ship is extricated, it will be displayed in one of the museums, like the IZL Museum or the Menachem Begin Heritage Center."

...The Jews were of varied sorts. Some, Hebrew scholars of the traditionalist pattern, had developed a standard and style of living befitting the country: while the later comers, many of whom were German-inspired, had introduced strange manners, and strange crops, and European houses (erected out of charitable funds) into this land of Palestine, which seemed too small and too poor to repay in kind their efforts: but the land tolerated them. Galilee did not show the deep-seated antipathy to its Jewish colonists which was an unlovely feature of the neighbouring Judea...

And this:

...A fifth section in the latitude of Jerusalem would have begun with Germans and with German Jews, speaking German or German-Yiddish, more intractable even than the Jews of the Roman era, unable to endure contact with others not of their race, some of them farmers, most of them shopkeepers, the most foreign, uncharitable part of the whole population of Syria. Around them glowered their enemies, the sullen Palestine peasants, more stupid than the yeomen of North Syria, material as the Egyptians, and bankrupt.

Jews and Arabs and the occasional Roman have held competing claims to Jerusalem's Temple Mount, otherwise known as the Noble Sanctuary, for several millennia...The site is controlled by the Israeli government and administered by an Islamic council. And the Mayor? As of this writing, that would be Ariela Ross, a 24-year-old "4Sq fiend" and "political and cultural advocate," as she is described on her Twitter page. On Foursquare, the location-sharing app, she is also Mayor of the Damascus Gate, the Christian Quarter, Dr. Calderon's Dental Office and a number of local watering holes, including Jabotinsky, Egon, Madness and Paparazzi. She holds 43 mayorships in all.

...Sharon Udasin detailed the Foursquare battle between Ross and other early adopters in Israel. The application seems to have relatively few users there—which explains how Ross captured the Mayorship of the Al-Aqsa mosque with just nine check-ins.

Ross, editor of a geek culture website called Walyou, says she discovered Foursquare when she lived in San Francisco and uses it to "see who's in the area and what there is to do." When she returned to Jerusalem in September, she decided to become mayor of as many of her favorite haunts as possible...
Jewish law expressly prohibits Jews from walking on the Temple Mount, due to the possibility of treading on the remains of the ancient Temple, though many nonreligious Jews do visit the site (Ariel Sharon famously went there shortly before the beginning of the Second Intifada).

"I'm bad," Ross said of having broken the rule. She visited the mosque at the invitation of the mother of a Muslim boyfriend, a Bedouin Israeli, but she admitted that many of her check-ins were not strictly from within the mosque itself. "Usually I'm sitting right outside of it," she said, "but I didn't see any reason to create a new location" on Foursquare.

..."It's not about religion or politics for me," Ross said. "It's just the technological realm. I could imagine, if they make a version in Arabic and Hebrew, people maybe wondering, 'How is it possible this Jewish girl is mayor of Al-Aqsa?' But I'm kind of an anomaly. I have a lot of types of friends—Arabs, religious Jews, soldiers, priests..."

Despite being "very open-minded socially," however, Ross—who is above draft age but still applied and "would drop everything" to serve, considers herself right-of-center when it comes to defense. "I'm cool with everybody but don't mess with my nation. As long as you don't try to kill me or my people, I'm okay with you."

Asked whether she'd relinquish her Al-Aqsa mayorship if Muslims objected, she said, "They can just take it from me. If they go there often enough and join the website and check in, let them have it. But I'm not going to just give it up just because someone has a problem with it. My Muslim friends aren't offended. They laugh.

...Ross admitted to some minor fudging. She said her personal rule is that if she visited a location before she obtained a data plan, it seemed kosher to check in later. As to her disputed Al-Aqsa check-ins, she said she has a lot of friends on the police force in the Old City. "I can pretty much get into any location I want to at any hour, because of the people I know."

Interestingly, there's no word yet on whether the Israel Defense Forces have gotten hip the new application...

But with more access to the Internet, interest in the American sport gained ground — so much that the enthusiasm to start a tackle league came not from Americans in Israel but from native Israelis. In 2005, a group of them went to the head of American Football in Israel, Steve Leibowitz. “They said, ‘We’ve been playing tackle football on our own, but without equipment,’” Leibowitz said. “I said, basically, ‘You guys are a bunch of morons.’ ”

Leibowitz helped organize teams, gather regulation equipment and find volunteers to help run the I.F.L. In 2007, the league began with four teams. Since then, four more have been added. Israeli enthusiasm took the league only so far. Long before the I.F.L. started, Robert K. Kraft, the owner of the N.F.L.’s New England Patriots and a practicing Jew, donated money to build the first and only football stadium in Israel to house the flag football league. Kraft Stadium, situated in central Jerusalem, has lights, stands and artificial turf. In the center of the field is a Patriots logo.

“It definitely helps that a lot of the guys here are 21-, 22-year-olds that just came out of the elite combat units,” said Yonah Mishaan, who coaches the Jerusalem Lions.

Mishaan was born in Los Angeles and moved with his family to Israel when he was 13. A brawny 38-year-old of Syrian descent, Mishaan owns one of the few American sports bars in Jerusalem, appropriately named the Lion’s Den [that's my son's bar!]. With a seven-hour time difference from New York, the bar regularly stays open past sunrise on Monday mornings so fans can watch Sunday night N.F.L. games.

“Football is such a cult here,” Mishaan said. “People just stay up all night, and then at 7:30, they’re out to work.”

Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear co-stars have sparked religious outrage after dressing up in burkas on the Boxing Day special. Clarkson and Richard Hammond decided to dress in niqabs, a form of the burka where everything but the eyes are covered, in order to disguise themselves on the road. They also got James May in on the act when they greeted him from hospital after he fell and hit his head on rocks in the Syrian desert.
But their joke backfired after they were slammed by Muslims for mocking their religion.

Islamic activist Anjem Choudary, said: 'The burka is a symbol of our religion and people should not make jokes about it in any way. It would have been equally bad even if they’d not been in a country mainly populated by Muslims.'

On the Boxing Day episode of the show, the trio were driving across the Middle East to follow the path of the Three Wise Men.

Israeli archaeologists say they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern humans.

A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave [Qesem Cave] in central Israel said Monday they found teeth that were about 400,000 years old. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half that old, and were discovered in Ethiopia.

Archaeologist Avi Gopher said on Monday that further research is needed to solidify the claim, which is detailed in the December edition of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. If the claim is borne out, the discovery would change "the whole picture of evolution," he said.

Accepted scientific theory is that Homo sapiens originated in Africa and migrated outward about 80,000 years ago.

...Prime Minister Netanyahu: "I have set very clear policy; I did this in my 14.6.09 Bar-Ilan University speech. There I said as follows: If the Palestinians recognize a Jewish State, if they shelve the idea of the Palestinian refugees' right of return, if they have a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state – I tell you here and now that I will go with this to the end and that no coalition consideration will stop me, and I have no doubt that a majority will support me."

I think the opposing side has been very clear in its opposition to this policy, its refusal to acknowledge Israel's inherent Jewish character, its refusal to permit Jews to reside in "Palestine" if it will ever be established, their refusal to yield on a supposed 'right of return' that doesn't exist, their unwillingness not only to become demilitarized but to surrender to terror option.

I received this in response to my inquiry on the bank advertising Iran (background), this ad:

Here:

Dear Mr. Medad:

Your email correspondence directed to Diane Bergan, Senior Vice President – Public Affairs, regarding an “Unlocking the World’s Potential” campaign advertisement has been forwarded to the Executive Offices of HSBC Bank USA, N.A.

First and foremost on behalf of HSBC Bank I apologize for the concern which our advertisement in Greece caused. The advertisement was part of an HSBC global campaign and one of many which identified simple but surprising facts as a way to facilitate a conversation about unlocking the world’s potential.

So while our aim is to encourage debate and discussion we certainly have no intent to cause offense or be insulting, in fact quite the opposite.
Given the clear level of offense that this advertisement has caused the decision has been taken to remove it from our global campaign.

We respect your position and thank you for taking the time to raise your concerns with us.

PA lightens ban on working in settlementsJewish communities to ease Palestinian unemployment

Figures show number of Palestinians employed in settlementsJewish communities has increased to nearly 35,000; PA legislation barring employment there would be an economic blow to Palestinian population...

...The settlementsJewish communities and laborers who work in them have a mutually beneficial relationship, and settlementJewish community construction relies on Palestinian labor. Many Palestinian workers who do not have permission to work in Israel proper find employment in the settlementsJewish communities.

According to Israeli figures from September 2009 that were provided to the PA's donor countries, 22,000 Palestinians were working with Israeli permission in the settlementsJewish communities, including the settlements'Jewish communities' industrial zones. Non-governmental organizations have said, however, that about 10,000 other Palestinians are working in the settlementsJewish communities without formal permission, mainly in seasonal agricultural work.

Because it uncritically accepted the original Hamas claims of very few combatant deaths, the Goldstone Report was able to reach its flawed conclusion that the purpose of the operation must have been to kill civilians, not combatants.

Now that the truth has been admitted by the Hamas leadership -- that as many as 700 combatants were, in fact, killed -- the Goldstone Commission is obliged to reconsider its false conclusion and correct its deeply flawed report.
Richard Goldstone himself has repeatedly said that he hoped that new evidence will prove his conclusions wrong. Well, this new evidence -- a classic admission against interest -- does just that!

Oh, those Iranians covered with mud are engaged in a ritual ceremony called Kharrah Mali in Bijar located in Kurdistan province of Iran on December 16, 2010 mourning the slaying of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein, in the battle of Karbala in the year 680 A.D.

Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip struck southern Israel Sunday, hours after the Israeli military said it killed two Palestinians trying to plant bombs. Soldiers spotted a group of armed Palestinians before dawn approaching the border fence and placing explosives and opened fire, the army said. A helicopter gunship was also deployed and fired at them, the army said.

The Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, warned that the death of “religious literacy” among those who made and administered the law had created an imbalance in the way in which those with faith were treated compared to sexual minorities.

Highlighting the case Gary McFarlane, a relationship counsellor who was sacked by Relate for refusing to give sex therapy to a homosexual couple, he said that the judiciary now went out of its way to protect the rights of minorities.

At the same time, for the first time in British history politicians and judges were largely ignorant of religion and so failed to appreciate the importance Christians placed on abiding by the scriptures rather than the politically correct values of the secular state.

The Bishop’s concerns were underlined by Lord Woolf, a former Lord Chief Justice, who agreed that in some legal cases the balance had gone “too far” in tipping away from Christians.

In Haaretz today, Hebrew University Professor Daniel Blatman writes the most anti-Semitic article that has yet to appear in the Israeli mainstream media. Blatman claims to be a Holocaust scholar, and is employed by the Hebrew University at the Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry.

In his ranting anti-Semitic article, Blatman bleats: "...In the Israel of today, we can observe quite a few conditions whose presence in other societies and among other peoples led to racial separation, ethnic cleansing and even genocide...". Blatman's rant is part of the current wave of Jewish self-hatred in Israel under which leftist Jews insist that Israel's refusal to allow unlimited numbers of Africans seeking better-paying jobs to enter the country is the moral equivalent of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews. Hundreds of Africans "protested" over the weekend in protests featuring signs in Hebrew written for them by leftist Israelis, making exactly such comparisons. Blatman joins them, insisting that Israel in 2011 is exactly the same as Germany in 1932.

Lord indeed compares the situation in Israel today to 1932 but notes that the reality is that just like then the Nazis and Communists managaed together to destroy Germany democracy, at present, Blatman and cohorts are the "Communists" and Salah Raad and his extremists pals are the "Nazis".

If you go to this NYTimes article, you'll read a fourth installment in a series on "exploring how large-scale urban projects are transforming parts of the Arab world". The most recent is on Allepo (or 'Halab, and as we Jews know it, Aram Tzuba).

Did you know that

Mohamed Atta, the central planner of the 9/11 attacks, once wrote an urban planning thesis on the Old City of Aleppo in which he said he wanted to tear out centuries’ worth of buildings, Mr. Ruthven said. He dreamed of “an Islamic city that was pure and unchanged — frozen in aspic.”

Anyway, here's the action theme:

The project encompasses the rebuilding of crumbling streets and the upgrading of city services, the restoration of hundreds of houses in the historic Old City, plans for a 42-acre park in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and the near-decade-long restoration of the Citadel itself, whose massive walls dominate the skyline of Aleppo, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world,

I could easily substitute "Jerusalem" for "Aleppo" in that and leave in "Old City", "massive walls", "park", "Citadel", "oldest inhabited", etc.

Interesting, but what strikes me is that if the NYTimes would attempt to do this in Jerusalem, somehow I feel that it just wouldn't work. After all, they do attempt it and all we get are stories of how Jews don't belong in the eastern neighborhoods of the city and how reconstruction of a Jewish past, a Jewish architecture simply cannot be. It's an "Arab city".

On the front lines of the battle against Anti-Semitism, assimilation and delegitimisation of Israel/BDS on campus, 200 elected Jewish Student leaders, representing hundreds of campuses, will be arriving from 52 countries to address the challenges facing Jewish students worldwide.

From Glenn Richter, former director of SSSJ, who has tried posting
responses to Kissinger's excusing himself (Kippa tip: JTobin) based simply on emigration figures. This to show that Kissinger lied both in his initial response a couple of weeks ago and again in today's Washington Post op-ed. Here's his retort, posted online on the Washington Post site of the op-ed, and I hope, on the Jerusalem Post webpage of the article on the op-ed:

I think history disagrees with Secretary Kissinger. Whatever White House quiet diplomacy worked to free Soviet Jews, it was against an increasing background of public pressure on both the Kremlin and White House, not despite it. As an activist for Soviet Jewry since 1964, I well recall these years.

Secretary Kissinger also misstates the facts. He asserts that in Nixon's first administration, over 100,000 Soviet Jews emigrated. The fact speak otherwise. Emigration in 1969 was 2979, 1027 in 1970, 13,022 in 1971 and 31,681 in 1972, for a total of 48,709. The international public campaign for Soviet Jewry took off in 1971 after the sensational first Leningrad Trial of Jews seeking to flee the USSR. In 1972, the Soviets wanted an arms control treaty and reacted to the introduction into Congress of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which linked trade credits to the Kremlin with Jewish emigration.

Dr. Kissinger also stated in his initial response and in this op-ed that Jewish exit didn't exceed the 1972 total (which he claimed was 40,000) until the USSR collapsed. Simply untrue. In 1979, 51,320 Jews were let out, as the Kremlin attempted to reverse the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, by then law; then 71,196 in 1989, 213,437 in 1990, and 178,026 in 1991 as the Soviets tried desperately and unsuccessfully to gain US economic assistance.

********
And he adds:

Meanwhile, reading today the new and fascinating book, "The Student Struggle Against the Holocaust" (yes, title deliberately chosen) by Dr. Rafael Medoff and Rabbi David Golinkin, I found an eerie parallel.

The notorious Ass't Secretary of State under FDR Breckinridge Long testified on Nov. 26, 1943 before a Congressional committee re a proposed resolution calling on the White House to establish a rescue committee for European Jewry. Long declared that "we have taken into this country since the beginning of Hitler's regime and the persecution of the Jews, until today, approximately 580,000 refugees." The authors state that "a few days later his figures were exposed as false. The actual number of refugees admitted was not more than 250,000, and many of them were not Jews."

A doctor {sic!} has sued the Houston's restaurant in Miami after he ate a complete artichoke that he ordered, including the spiny and sharp exterior leaves. He subsequently suffered "severe abdominal pain and discomfort," and a "exploratory laparotomy" showed that the artichoke leaves were jammed in his "small bowel." His lawsuit claims that he had "never seen nor heard of previously" an artichoke and that it was the restaurant's fault for not teaching him how to eat it.

"It takes a sophisticated diner to be familiar with the artichoke," says the man's lawyer. "People might think that as a doctor, he'd know how to eat one. But he was thinking it was like a food he might have eaten in his native Cuba, where you eat everything on the plate."

A spokesperson for the restaurant group told Business Insurance, "What's next? Are we going to have to post warnings on our menu they shouldn't eat the bones in our barbeque ribs?"

As explained, and the way we Medads do it, if to eat an artichoke one plucks off a leaf one-by-one, placing the wide side in your mouth and, with your teeth lightly grasping the soft part of the fibrous part you 'scrape' the leaf, leaving the soft part in your mouth. Repeat until you reach the soft inner heart. Then you carefully remove the 'heart' from the dangerous thistle-like leave enclosure

..."the dirty little secret of Jerusalem is that it is a fully-functioning intercommunal city." I think this is true. Yes, there are terrifically difficult issues (not least of which is the seizing of several Arab homes by Jewish settlers eager to make their presence felt in Arab neighborhoods),

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Why do Israelis support a two state solution, but oppose a freeze on settlement construction?

Jeremy Sharon argues that it’s because they have become discouraged about the possibility of a peace deal at this point in time:

“Support for the notion of ‘two states for two peoples’ remains high at over 60 percent because Israelis acknowledge that ultimately, continued rule over the Palestinians is untenable. But there is no desire to rush into an irreversible agreement which could result not with the shelling of Sderot or Haifa, but of Tel Aviv.”

Israeli settlers from Shiloh settlement seized on Sunday 20 dunums from Khrba Sera, in the south of eastern area of Nablus.

The official of the settlement file in the West Bank, Ghasan Deglis, said that numbers of Israeli settlers are in the seized area and plowing the land...

Well, I now have to call up and find out what my friends and neighbors are doing but since he has been notoriously wrong and a teller of falsehoods, this is getting a bit extreme.

UPDATE

Ghasan, there is a small grain of truth in your tale.

This morning, three youngsters, without permission, attempted to plough about 1.5 dunams of land that had lain fallow for years on the borderline of Shiloh's area. Members of Shiloh's community board stopped them and asked that the Civil Administration intervene and to determine what the legal situation is.

Irresponsible individuals were involved and responsible community leaders ended the situation.

Haaretz reports that a group of “intellectuals” is calling on Netanyahu to fire all rabbis who signed the earlier call for Jews not to rent or sell property to Arabs in predominantly Jewish areas. Among the signers were Prof. Joseph Algassi (Tel Aviv University, philosophy), a leading proponent of the “One-State Solution” in which Israel will be obliterated and replaced by a Rwanda-style bi-national state with an Arab majority (see). Also signing was Prof. Haim Adler from the Hebrew University (education),
and Prof. Aliza Shenhar, the leftist head of the Galilee College (who was a Rector at Haifa University).

None of these same people called for firing leftwing anti-Zionist professors in Israel who call on people not to rent and sell property to Jews in East Jerusalem.

Northern Islamic Movement preacher Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, recently released from jail for inciting riots earlier this year, is back on the speakers' circuit, riling up Arab masses against Israel. Salah on Friday spoke at an illegally built mosque in Rahat, preaching that all of Israel belongs to the Muslims, and that there was no room for believers of another religion to have any authority here.

...The tale began to unravel when Arabs pointed their fingers at residents of Itamar, a religious community located almost an hour’s drive from the scene of the fire. The story then was changed, with the blame being placed on the closer community of Maaleh Ephraim, most of whose residents are professionals and who almost never have been involved in any activities against Arabs.

Fadel finally admitted to police the whole story was a lie and that he was responsible for the fire, which he set to burn thorns before it spread beyond control. Blaming Jews not only would have saved him from the embarrassment of having burned his own sheep, it also would allow him to claim damages from the government while being hailed as a hero among Palestinian Authority Arabs and left-wing anti-Zionists.

Hundreds of accusations against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria have been leveled in recent years, usually in claims that Jews attack or destroy olive trees, although evidence has been produced that in most cases the Arabs have purposely improperly pruned their trees and then accused Jews of the damage.

Another tactic has been to instigate violence, especially on the Shabbat when Jews are forbidden to take pictures, and then accuse Jews of attacking them.

Yossi Dagan, adviser to the Samaria Regional Council, commented, “There is a system among left-wing groups who campaign for financial contributions from foreign countries, many of whom are hostile to Israel. They use European Union money, which has reached billions of dollars the past few years. Many of the workers for left-wing groups enjoy high salaries and use reports from so-called human rights organizations and then travel throughout Judea and Samaria and blow up or change facts to spread libel against Jews.”...

SHAI’s Yonah Feitelson, who toured Deir-Yassin early on April 10, told his superiors that he had seen 80 dead. When Ari’eli returned from Deir-Yassin on the 13th, he told his wife that his GADNA unit had buried 70 corpses and blown up another 40, a total of 110. In 1981, an ex-villager, Mohammed Aref Samir, told an interviewer that 94 bodies “were gathered that day.” (Kol Ha'Ir, May 1, 1981) Bir-Zeit University researchers arrived at a figure of 110 after interviewing survivors. (Sharif Kanaana and Nihad Zitawi, "Deir Yassin," Monograph No. 4, Destroyed Palestinian Villages Documentation Project (Bir Zeit: Documentation Center of Bir Zeit University, 1987, p. 55). The number of dead appears to have been 110.

Another article which views the Arab side "Massacre was done there" by Dani Rubinstein Ha'Aretz 11.9.91 Page B2 states that in a new Bir-Zeit research of the affair the number of killed was estimated at 107.

with this, too:

I asked Dr. Khalidi how we should cover the story. He said, "We must make the most of this". So we wrote a press release stating that at Deir Yassin children were murdered, pregnant women were raped. All sorts of atrocities.

- Hazen Nusseibeh, an editor of the Palestine Broadcasting Service's Arabic news in 1948, was interviewed for the BBC television series "Israel and the Arabs: the 50-year conflict." He describes an encounter with Deir Yassin survivors and Palestinian leaders, including Hussein Khalidi, the secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, at the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City.

About Me

American born, my wife and I moved to Israel in 1970. We have lived at Shiloh together with our family since 1981. I was in the Betar youth movement in the US and UK. I have worked as a political aide to Members of Knesset and a Minister during 1981-1994, lectured at the Academy for National Studies 1977-1994, was director of Israel's Media Watch 1995-2000 and currently, I work at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. I was a guest media columnist on media affairs for The Jerusalem Post, op-ed contributor to various journals and for six years had a weekly media show on Arutz 7 radio. I serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish Communities in Judea & Samaria.